the blades animation are very easy, just hit the animate button move the timeslider, then rotate the blades. Wanna go faster? just twist it more. Add motion blur effect to give the blades a fast spinning sensation. If you finish modelling both the copper and the blades use link to make the blades stick to the copper's body. It'll keep rotating.

[edit]very sorry i misunderstood your post cheers and good luck[/edit]

uh BTW almost forgot, you can make the blades spinning constantly without spinning it thousand of times to get it fast until the end of animation... just move the slider into frame # 10 or wherever, spin it couple of times (must be 360 degrees on each rotation to make it smooth) untill its speed satisfy you then open the track view, open the object, find the blade's name, then open "transform" highlight "rotation", click the "parameter curve out-of-range types" icon then choose relative repeat.

In the case of the helicopter, the motion blur is, I'd say, necessary to make it look believable. I mean, don't forget the motion blur otherwise it won't look good.
You can activate it in the object properties (right mouse button on the object > properties) and then check "object motion blur". A nice value for those blades would be about 6.

2.Select the blades group/object,click on the Hierarchy tab and choose affect pivot only.Move the pivot point so that it is at the centre of rotation on the blades group/object.

3.Click the animate button and goto frame 2.Rotate the blades full circle (360 degrees) either by hand or using the transform type in tool (F12).

4.Go into track view,locate the blades and click on the + next to Transform.Select rotate and click on the parameter curves out of range box at the top (7th from left). Click the right hand arrow under cycle.Now the blades will rotate 360 degrees over 3 frames for the entire animation without further input from you!

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